Lego Minifigures Online

Building Our Own Fun With Funcom's New MMO

Lego is one of the hottest toy brands in the world, and its line of minifigs have been one of the company’s most popular collectibles. It’s not surprising that the company is looking to leverage that popularity with a game based solely around this line of figures. During Gamescom, we got a behind the scenes glimpse at what fans can expect from this upcoming, kid-friendly MMO.

TT Games’ suite of Lego titles has received a lot of love over the years, but it’s not the only studio working on Lego games. Funcom recently announced that it is developing a free-to-play Online MMO that lets players explore Lego worlds themed around space, pirates, and ancient mythology.

Funcom will feature almost a 100 minifigs – from the Chicken Suit guy to Roller Derby Girl to a Space Ranger – when the game launches. Players get to pick a team of three characters who they can switch between at any time. Different characters have different abilities, so while some might be good at combat, others might be better at building structures.

We watched a team that consisted of a DJ artist, a Cyclops, and a Roller Derby Girl smash up a bunch of bricks and bad guys within an ice covered mythological world. Each figure has two attacks. In standard MMO fashion, some characters are great for crowd control and others – such as the fairy – have a really high DPS and can spit out devastating magical attacks. Our team sliced through several waves of trolls collecting a fare amount of loot in the form of plates. The plates are equipment that provides bonuses to your characters stats, but won’t change their set design. At certain points in the game, your team can even destroy objects and rebuild them. We watch a Space Ranger tear down an enemy turret and rebuild it into a weapon to use against his foes.

"We could not be more excited to be working with Lego on such a great franchise,” says executive producer Lawrence Poe. “I think you could even say the team has been training to make this game since we were little kids. That excitement carries over into everything we do, and we're throwing every ounce of our passion and creativity into the game."

Funcom is also working to integrate the game with player’s real life collecting obsessions. Gamers who buy upcoming sets of Lego minifigs will find a code inside the package, which allows them to unlock that particular figure in the game. Players can also buy these figures separately, but Funcom says that each minifig can be unlocked for free if players spend enough time collecting the in-game currency. Lego Minifigs Online launches in second half of 2014 for PC, iOS, and Android.